One analogy kind of says it all when it comes to BCS national championships and Tulane. The Green Wave has always been that kid with its nose pressed up against the glass of the candy shop, drooling at all the sweets inside, but finding the door to the shop perpetually locked.

Tulane football Coach Curtis Johnson has been inside that candy shop and eaten plenty. He won a national championship in 2002 as an assistant coach at Miami (1996-2005).

Though the BCS structure and how it selects elite bowl participants is undergoing change, Johnson said being a member of the Big East will better the Green Wave’s chances of top-shelf bowl games at the end of the season for all its league members.

“They’re going to be one of the players in the national championship every year,” Johnson said.

The BCS selection process is changing and by 2014 will take a different form, with semifinal participants chosen by a committee to playoff for rights to play in the national championship game.

But the Big East will still likely be better positioned for a shot at those selections than the expanded – and now somewhat deflated – Conference USA, which also has been trying to acquire teams from the Mountain West and other leagues to fortify against attrition such as Tulane’s departure.

“It’s a big advantage. They’re noticed for bigger bowl games,” Monroe said. “It’s gonna be fun joining that conference; it’s known for academics as well, which Tulane is known for. It’s a great accomplishment for the school.”

And the Big East is still undergoing change. In Tuesday’s teleconference call with reporters across the country, commissioner Mike Aresco said the league will continue to expand. He said he is looking to make the conference a premier football league and targeting schools with large markets and football potential.

“We’re not finished,” he said. “We obviously have some organized plans for expansion.”

Aresco said he expects the conference to be either a 14-team or 16-team league. Experts around the country are speculating the loss of strong BCS-contending schools such as Rutgers and Miami in recent years has depreciated the conference.

In June, the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee approved a four-school playoff post-season structure to determine a national football champion. A selection committee will determine what teams belong in those games. The semifinals will be played in existing bowl games on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, and the final will be played six to 10 days later at a neutral site. The new format will be in effect from the 2014-15 college football season through the 2025-26 season.

Aresco said the Big East champion will be considered for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day games.

It’s little like going home to him – and finding the keys to the candy shop in his pocket.

“My familiarity with Miami, with the teams in Florida, with the people in the conference and how they run the conference -- it’s just a win-win" Johnson said. "I love the conference. I thought the biggest mistake Miami made was to get out of the Big East. The basketball is exceptional. I love the football, I love the league, I love the travel. I love where we go. It’s just a win-win.”